Secret Britain (2010) s01e04 Episode Script

Borderlands and Beyond

This is a story of Britain, but
a Britain that we very rarely see.
Britain as an undiscovered country.
We're travelling from
the Southern tip of England
to the far North of Scotland
exploring the very best the
British countryside has to offer.
But we'll be taking
the long way round
because this journey is all
about getting off the beaten track.
We're looking to reclaim
the hidden and the overlooked
to find the pieces of our history
that might have slipped
between the cracks.
And there she is,
the Hidden Valley.
We asked you to share your secret
places, and we'll be sharing our own.
Yeah, remote is certainly
one word to describe this place.
This is Secret Britain.
We're on the final leg of
an epic adventure which is taking us
the length and breadth of Britain.
Oh, eh. This is lovely stuff!
We've discovered open spaces
in the crowded south,
explored the contrasts of east
and west, and found hidden gems
in some of the best-loved areas
of the Peaks and Lakes.
It's absolutely amazing.
And this time
we're travelling from the Borders
right up to the most northwesterly
point on the UK mainland
Cape Wrath.
We're each taking a very different
route to the furthest edge
of our island.
To find the secret stories hidden
in our last great wildernesses.
And I'm starting here
in Northumberland.
Where the world famous
Hadrian's Wall attracts
nine million visitors a year.
'But few
ever make it where I'm going.
'A quiet corner
of Northumberland National Park.
'A lost world
shaped by a hidden history.'
I'm heading for College Valley
which is in the north of the park.
Now, they only allow 12 cars in it
a day to preserve its tranquillity
and today, I'm one of them.
Right, well,
I've got my visitor's pass and that
means I'm allowed through this gate.
Privileged access, you know!
'A payment of Â£10 means you can
be one of the few
'to experience
a beautiful secret space.'
Right.
And this is it.
College Valley.
Officially the quietest place
in England.
'It's somewhere you can really
lose yourself in the landscape.'
'I'm walking with Russell Tait
who's worked here for more than 20
years as a ranger and sheep farmer.'
There is not
a soul around, it's quite an
extraordinary place, isn't it?
Well, I think in terms
of tranquillity
that's exactly what you've got here.
People have used the College Valley
for hundreds of years, but it's so
difficult to get to that, you know,
it just keeps it on the quiet side.
'To learn the secret of why
the valley is now so peaceful
we've got to climb.'
What a view, when you look down
there, the way that the hills just,
kind of, bend off round the corner.
'We're heading into the
Cheviot range, a ridge of granite
'that forms the natural geological
border between England and Scotland.
How high have we made it
to here then?
We're just coming up
to 500 metres here.
So quite a bit to go
to get onto the top.
Yeah. And it is a hardy,
tough landscape, I mean, it's a
beautiful day today, but, you know.
It's a rugged landscape and it's not
a place you should come to
without being well prepared.
You know, it's one of them places
that the weather
can change very, very quickly here
and people who aren't prepared
may get themselves into bother.
Tranquil today, this untamed
countryside's troubling secret
is that for centuries
it was a war zone.
A no-man's land
steeped in bad blood and feuding.
We have had 300 hundred years
of border warfare, you know,
between the Scots and the English
and we also had the Border Reivers,
you know, families who
would pit themselves against
each other so it wasn't necessarily
the Scots against the English.
Very often it was similar people
from similar parts of the world,
simply coming into another valley
taking cattle, taking possessions
and heading back home.
This area was the Northumbrian
equivalent of the Wild West.
A dangerous place
fought over for years.
But the 1603 union formalised the
border between England and Scotland,
and College Valley
was left in peace.
The only reminder of its turbulent
history is the modern border,
a rather understated testament
to its bloody past.
And this is it
it's the border between
England and Scotland
It's the only fence I've seen here
since I came into the valley
and I can't believe it,
there's no barbed wire
or passport control or anything.
Anyone could jump over there.
I'm in Scotland!
Leaving the border behind, the
twin cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh
stand guard at the narrowest part
of Scotland.
This is a famous landscape,
packed with architectural giants,
from the Forth's bridges
to attention-grabbing castles
like Edinburgh.
It's a Mecca for tourists,
but I'm on the hunt for something
you might otherwise miss.
A 2,000-year old piece of history
which sits unseen in modern Scotland.
It's a UNESCO listed Roman site
but it takes a bit of finding.
Well, this is the strangest gateway
into a World Heritage Site
I've ever wandered through.
Is there really anything waiting
for us?
'Beyond the industrial estate
the countryside opens up
to reveal what I'm searching for.'
Allow me to introduce you to the less
well-known Scottish little sister
of Hadrian's Wall
this is the Antonine Wall.
This is all that remains
of the northernmost border
of the Roman Empire.
'Built in 142 AD,
'this ridge was once a wall
nearly 10 feet high which spanned
Scotland from coast to coast.'
Here that's just 37 miles from
the Firth of Forth in the east
to the Firth of Clyde in the west.
Today the wall is almost invisible,
buried underneath
21st-century Scotland.
But if you look closely, it's still
there, running through back gardens,
alongside roads
and through woodland.
Here at Falkirk,
just to the west of Edinburgh,
it breaks through the surface
and you can see the line of the wall,
the outline of a fort
and a mysterious set of craters.
These pits on the north side of the
wall, the Scottish side, originally
would have been about three feet deep
and buried in the bottom
would have been sharpened stakes
hidden under foliage.
So anyone trying to scamper
across here would have come
to a pretty sticky end.
'The wall was only garrisoned for
20 years, then abandoned to become
a forgotten footnote of history.'
It's the high watermark
of Roman military might
still visible on the landscape
almost 2,000 years later,
but only if you know where to look.
For the Romans this was
the end of the civilised world.
Everything to the north was
considered uninhabitable wilderness.
That's where I'm heading next.
But first I'm crossing the ancient
border of the Antonine Wall
and taking a quick detour
to nearby Dunmore.
'You expect castles
and fortifications in Scotland
'but I'm looking for
a more exotic architectural treat.
'The lush woodland hides a historical
fashion statement.'
I love big high walls like this.
It's all very Secret Garden.
You just want to know what's looming
beyond them, and you step through
that lovely doorway onto this
beautifully-manicured patch of grass
and then you see that
a big, giant stone pineapple.
I mean, who came up with that idea?!
The culprit is John Murray,
the eccentric 4th Earl of Dunmore.
In the middle of the 18th century,
he built the pineapple
as a way of celebrating
his own sophisticated tastes.
It's not as bizarre as it might seem
because in the 1700s pineapples
were a bit of a status symbol.
And you could actually rent them
by the day and people would
park them up on their dining room
table and that would suggest
that they'd travelled
to some far-off land
like the Caribbean,
so it's like renting a supercar
and parking it on your driveway
for the weekend.
But this was no folly.
It topped a set of greenhouses
where the fruit was grown.
A piece of whimsy with a purpose.
In its day this would have been a
thing of wonder, a true spectacle.
Today, it's a secret slice of exotica
in the heart of Scotland.
Beyond Dunmore the Lowlands
march ever northwards
to the edge of the Grampians
and the tiny town of Kirriemuir.
It sits on the edge
of the Angus Glens.
Five valleys so picturesque
that local legend has it
they're God's handprint on the land.
And perched on the top
of the cricket pavilion
is an ancient optical device
a camera obscura -
a way to capture and celebrate
the stunning views here.
It was donated to Kirriemuir in 1930
by the town's most famous son,
JM Barrie, author of Peter Pan.
Like Barrie,
Morag Cable was born here.
James Barrie wanted something
that children could enjoy
bearing in mind that at that time,
in 1930, there wasn't television
or computers or anything like that
so the camera obscura
was a wonderful thing to put up.
The camera obscura
is the dark chamber which we're in.
Up on the roof here
there is a window and behind it,
a mirror which sits at 45 degrees.
And the image comes through
the window, reflected off the mirror
and down through the fixed lens
and goes straight through
and ends up on this table.
It is a nice way to look
at the surrounding landscape,
cos you get a panoramic view,
you get a 360-degree view.
In 1930 I think this would have
been the most wonderful thing
for children to come and see.
It would have been like magic,
like Barrie would
have enjoyed his bit of magic.
Crossing the rocky heart of the
Highlands I'm heading towards Oban.
This is the picture postcard vision
of Scotland, packed with Munros,
the name given to all peaks
above 3,000 feet and loved
by so-called Munro-baggers,
who attempt to scale
all 283 of them.
But I'm going somewhere
that's fallen off the tourist trail.
Somewhere
with its own secrets to share.
Loch Etive is a 19-mile sea loch
just north of Oban.
It pushes inland
at Dunstaffnage Castle,
the seawater
boiling and surging over a sill
known as the Falls of Lora.
It cuts between steep mountains
on either side, but is never wider
than a mile from shore to shore.
We might call it a loch,
but this narrow tongue of water
is actually a spectacular fjord.
Loch Etive in Gaelic
translates as "little, ugly one".
First impressions?
That's not entirely accurate.
Today the loch is deserted,
a well-kept secret among locals
and the kayakers
for whom it's on the list of the
best places to paddle in Scotland.
'Marine Scientist Mark Carter's
lived here for 12 years.
'And he's taking me on a tour.'
All set?
'The best way to explore
Etive's riches is from the water.'
So Loch Etive,
it's a sea loch, isn't it?
Yeah, down at Connell
and Dunstaffnage
it's joined to open ocean,
so from there you can
go literally right round the world.
The area is really very special,
we're at the both northern
and southern limits of species,
we've got the Gulf Stream offshore
which then comes into
the North Atlantic Drift.
That brings us our climate
and makes it very warm.
We've got the continental shelf
which comes up
from the Bay of Biscay
that sort of area,
that brings us some warm currents.
We've got the boreal Arctic currents
coming down and it's that
junction of the warm and cold,
so we get both warm and cold
species all at the same time.
'These special conditions
mean the waters here are home
'to more than
80,000 salt and freshwater species,
'from tiny bacteria
through to eels and cod.
'Although the glassy water only
gives a hint of the world beneath.
'I'm hoping to spot a few
of Etive's larger residents though.'
There is maybe the chance
of us catching a glimpse
of some common seals?
Seals and kayaks don't normally go,
so we have to be very careful
as we approach.
Right, are they quite close
to this point we're at now then?
They're literally just half a mile
ahead of us on the reefs.
Right, Matt,
can you come over to me now?
If you look very carefully
over there,
see where the rock comes down, you've
got two little bits sticking up,
and they're seals.
Oh, yeah, I can see them.
That's the Loch Etive colony.
'It's a rare glimpse of some
of Etive's shyest inhabitants.
'We leave them to the serenity
they enjoy here.'
Today this loch is hard to visit,
with no road access
for half its length,
unlike its more celebrated cousins,
Loch Ness and Loch Lomond.
There's quite a few
impressive things
about Loch Etive, of course, there's
the magnificence of these mountains
and hills and the beauty
of the water
that just seems to cut and carve
itself through the landscape.
But I think the most special thing,
the most impressive thing is that
we have paddled and paddled today.
We've travelled about 13 miles
and we haven't seen anybody.
We have simply
had this place to ourselves.
But 170 years ago this peaceful
place was rather more crowded.
Etive's secret past
is as a tourist hot spot.
Queen Victoria fell in love
with the Highlands in the 1840s
and where she led,
thousands followed.
A paddle steamer ferried
Victorian tourists from the sea
up to the end of the loch.
Etive was their gateway to Scotland.
From here their journey
was by horse and carriage.
'And I'm following their trail,'
driving the 14-mile route
they took up to the honey pot
of Highland tourism
..Glen Coe.
Glen Coe is the jewel
in Scotland's craggy crown.
It's a mountain wilderness
with towering peaks and rock faces
hung with clouds,
formed when a super-volcano exploded
more than 420 million years ago.
A main road runs straight through
the middle and gives visitors easy
access to its spectacular views.
But driving through this great
glen doesn't do it justice.
To experience
this huge landscape fully,
and to uncover its secret history,
I'm going to walk it.
And on a rainy day like today,
it's easy to identify
with its history of clan warfare
and the infamous massacre of 1692.
This is where the familiar story
of the MacDonald clan took place,
38 members of the clan were
murdered by their treacherous
neighbours the Campbells.
And so the Victorians
would flock here
to soak up the morbid atmosphere.
The south side of the valley is
bordered by the majestic mountains
known as the Three Sisters.
And they conceal a secret chapter
in the story of the massacre.
On that cold February night,
running from the sound of gunfire,
some of the MacDonald clan
fled here and began to climb.
I'm following their route,
into the mist.
It's certainly a wild and windy day.
'It isn't the easiest path.'
How am I going to get over this?!
'But the place I'm heading for
has a long history and many names.'
This place is known as the Hanging
Valley, the Lost Valley, the Valley
of Capture and the Hidden Valley.
It is pretty difficult to find.
'The very inaccessibility
of this place is why it's
managed to stay so secret.'
It's a tough old scramble,
and generally I find the better
the scramble the better the reward.
'And finally
I find the special place
'the MacDonalds were heading for
on that cold night
more than 300 years ago.'
And there she is
the Hidden Valley.
Looking very moody under the mist.
Definitely worth the climb.
'Invisible from the glen, this flat
valley floor is entirely unexpected.'
The treacherous climb to this valley
was the MacDonalds' only hope.
It was their secret refuge.
Somewhere they knew they'd be safe.
'Today it's a peaceful place,
a part of Glen Coe you can
have entirely to yourself.'
Beyond the glen I'm heading deeper
into the Highlands, to Corrour,
somewhere many pass through, but
few ever take the time to explore.
But even here
I'm following the trail of those
intrepid Victorian tourists.
'And today I'm relying
on a triumph of 19th century
'technology to reach a place
almost forgotten by the 21st.'
'I'm up early to join the passengers
on the Caledonian Sleeper
at Crianlarich.'
It's an iron road
linking the rest of Britain to the
more remote areas of the Highlands.
This is the West Highland Line,
and incredibly recently it's been
voted the best railway journey
in the world.
The majority of these people
here would have got on
in London about 12 hours ago
and here they are
waking up to views like this.
This extraordinary feat
of engineering opened in 1894
to service the tourists desperate
to jump on the tartan bandwagon.
'But it was a troublesome line
to construct, running across
'miles of soggy peat bog which
threatened to consume the tracks.
'It was so ruinously expensive
that the builders joked the bog
'was not just swallowing the line,
but also their money.'
Well, these views and this scenery
is hardly surprising
because we are in
the heart of the Highlands,
but what is surprising
is where I'm getting off.
This train is my route
to a secret place.
'But as I head through Rannoch Moor
it seems an unpromising spot
to disembark.
'All signs of life have disappeared.
'There's no roads,
and no houses here.'
But there is a station.
This is Corrour.
Officially the highest and most
remote railway station in the UK.
'Most people take this train
directly north,
'few ever get off here.'
'It redefines
"the middle of nowhere".'
Yeah, remote is certainly one word
to describe this place.
It's such a quaint lovely
little station, it feels like
a toy station on a model railway.
You know, with like spongy hills
and little bits of gravel
placed as your stones.
Matchbox there.
And there's no taxis,
there's no tannoys,
there's no barriers to get through.
And a whopping view.
When Corrour station was built
it didn't even appear
on the public timetable.
it was used exclusively by guests
of the private estate here
who came to hunt and shoot.
You have to feel grateful
to the Victorians
for the colossal effort
they went to putting this line in.
If it wasn't for them
people wouldn't be
able to experience this.
I mean, the nearest road, even
these days, is over 10 miles away.
'But there is one
unexpected home comfort.
'A small cafe run by Lucy Millns.
'And I want to know
what it's like to live
and work somewhere so remote.'
It does look idyllic,
but obviously it has its
complications living here.
It does, there's things
that you can't really
think of before you come here.
You know, and then you get
here and think "Oh, yeah."
And then something that seems
so normal
to somebody is actually
quite a big thing for us,
like the rubbish.
How do you get rid of it?
Of course.
You can't put the bins out.
No, there's no-one to come
and collect the bins. Well,
there is, but they're 16 miles away.
16 miles away?!
It's a bit of a trip.
"I'm just going to put the bins
out, I'll be back in an hour."
Yeah, at least.
How busy are you then?
There are some days
we don't see anyone for a good few
hours, so it can be really quiet,
you watch the trains go by
and no-one comes off.
And do you all run to the window
when you hear a train arriving?
Run up to the glass?
We did to start with.
It was like "Everybody, train,
stop what you're doing."
But, yeah, you count how many people
get off.
But not doing that so much now.
Corrour is a moment frozen in time,
a window
on an ancient landscape opened up
by intrepid Victorian engineers.
You know, so many people
only witness this landscape
by looking at it whizzing past it
from a train carriage, but if you
do make the effort, come up here,
fill your lungs with this air,
you really feel a part of it,
and if it wasn't for that tiny,
little train station at the bottom,
this would only ever
be the privilege
of some very extreme walkers.
Leaving Corrour and heading north,
the landscape tells its
own turbulent stories.
Mountains wear the ancient
scars of glaciers and volcanoes.
But Scotland's coasts
are also rich and beautiful.
North of Aberdeen, the Forvie
Nature Reserve
is home to the largest
range of sand dunes in Scotland.
For Alex Geddes the coast between
here and the village of Collieston
is his own piece
of Secret Britain,
a special place
where he can escape city life.
I think when you look around here
you realise how beautiful
the area is,
I mean, really, you could be
anywhere in the world at all.
Who'd believe this is Scotland?
It gives you such an inner feeling
of peace and tranquillity and that's
why we love coming out here so much.
'If you just listen,
'we're 10-15 minutes away
from a major city.
'But here you're so alone,
the tranquillity,
you can sit here for ages'
and when I leave here
I feel as if I've been
on a week's holidays and I've maybe
only been out one or two hours.
This is the area
that's called Hackley Bay.
A beautiful little inlet
just south of Collieston.
It's so lovely sitting down there,
out of the wind, just
enjoying the sea coming in.
I've got to say this
is probably my favourite place.
My mind's never far away from here
and although my head might be
in work, my heart is actually
out in the nature research.
Beyond Forvie
is one of the best-known features
of the North of Scotland, Loch Ness.
This is part of the Great Glen,
a huge flooded fault line
a watery divide running
from the east to the west coast.
Here the land
meets the North Atlantic,
and 550 Hebridean islands are strung
out along 240 miles of coastline.
I'm heading to North Uist
in the Outer Hebrides, in search
of a precious, secret habitat.
This island is no slouch
when it comes to beauty.
The white shell sand beaches
and turquoise water look almost
Caribbean in the sunshine.
It's hard to believe
I'm still in Britain.
I tell you, it's
a real treat for me to be here.
Ever since I was a little lad
I've always wanted to come
to the Outer Hebrides.
I think even its name -
the Outer Hebrides
conjures up the idea of a place
that is completely inaccessible.
'It is undeniably hard to get here,
but it's far from deserted.'
5,000 people live
and farm here, and the island
is also home to thousands of birds.
I'm meeting conservationist
Julia Gallagher.
Julia, how're you doing, all right?
Ah, hi, Matt.
What's going on out here?
Well,
I'm just having a look, actually.
We've got some eider ducks just
at the front of the shore here,
you see them floating around.
They're females, but they've actually
got some youngsters with them.
Oh, lovely.
What've we got coming here,
right on cue,
we've got some oystercatchers.
You see those wonderful red beaks
and red legs.
You hear them before you see them.
Yup.
It's absolutely delightful here.
Uist's staggering beauty
has a purpose.
The land has a sandy secret
which bursts into life
every spring and summer.
A wildflower meadow which seems
to grow out of the beach.
This is the machair.
Sand blown on top of peat
to create a unique habitat.
Machair is only found
in the British isles
and 70% of it
is right here in the Hebrides.
It's a paradise for bees,
insects and birds.
In May and June all these fields just
come completely alive with all
the birds that that are really vocal,
so you have your lapwings that make
this wonderful evocative call,
so they're really very much
reliant on this type
of habitat to put their nests down
and it's essentially all to do
with the open areas of ground.
Birds like lapwings, they're
ground nesters and they just dig
a little scrape out,
it's not a very elaborate nest.
And they also need to be able
to see predators and having
this low vegetation
they can see for miles around.
But there is one bird that owes
its very existence to the machair.
The elusive corncrake.
That's the one that everybody knows
and most bird-watchers
come up to see.
They're very lucky if they can see
it, but they can certainly hear it,
a very distinctive call.
SOFT SCRAPING
The corncrake was once familiar
in meadows throughout Britain,
but intensive farming has pushed
it towards the brink of extinction.
Here on Uist it's thriving in
the safe haven of the machair.
It owes its survival to the
unique way this land is managed.
Crofters still use traditional,
low-intensity farming methods
to grow barley,
oats and rye for animal feed.
John Allan MacLellan
is a crofter here.
He's working hard to preserve these
farming traditions and with them,
the machair.
How proud are you John Allan
of having the machair here?
Well, extremely proud, extremely
proud of having the machair.
When you think of how hard people
have crofted over the years to
have the habitats we've got here.
If it had been done any other way bar
crofting it just wouldn't be there,
To be quite honest,
the machair just wouldn't be there.
It would have probably
blown away years ago.
And how would you sum up a crofter's
life in the Outer Hebrides?
I've been on Uist all my life,
brought up and worked on a croft
from the age of four or five.
I think it's just
a fantastic way to live.
It's probably not
the best-paid job in the world,
but it's a cracking way to live,
I would say.
DISTANT BAGPIPES PLAY
Is that your ringtone?
No. I thought it was your ringtone.
No it's a local boy
who plays the pipes.
That is great!
Here we are just
stood on a lovely little hillock
in the most spectacular landscape
and then a piper starts up.
Yup. You'll only get that in Uist,
eh?
Remote and inaccessible.
Uist is full of life.
A secret world of productive
and protected beauty.
Back on the mainland I'm moving
on towards Ullapool in search
of a place
that will allow me a glimpse
of Scotland's prehistoric lost world.
But the further north I go,
the harder it's getting.
Today, the weather
and some of Scotland's least popular
residents have taken against me.
This is a wild
and fierce environment.
Today's a summer's day
and I'm being pelted by rain
and eaten alive by midges.
But it seems that our ancestors
refused to be put off by the bugs.
These fields are filled with
remnants of Iron Age settlements.
There are signs of habitation here
dating back more than 6,000 years.
'Prehistory is breaking through
the surface of the land here.
'And as I walk on,
I'm heading further back in time.'
I've been following the river
for about two miles upstream now
and it's just got louder and louder,
but I still can't see anything.
But this ancient landscape
is about to reveal itself
in all its geological glory.
That is quite a vision.
It looks like someone's
taken a giant knife
and gouged it through the earth.
This is the Corrieshalloch Gorge.
300 feet deep, more than a mile long,
with its main waterfall, the Falls
of Measach plummeting 150 feet.
It's a box canyon - a narrow channel
with sheer drops on three sides
formed when glacial meltwater
forced its way down
between faults in the rock.
It's a rare geological phenomenon,
and looking into the gorge is like
looking into a primitive world.
Its rocky walls
clothed in damp greenery.
'Alex Scott is an expert
on the botany here.'
Is this pretty much how it would have
been, I don't know, 1,000 years ago?
I think it probably is.
We have other plants round us
that tell us that it's been
a woodland for a long time
because we have ferns.
I've always loved ferns.
That's a very, very good
taste that, loving ferns
because they're really an ancient
group and the ferns are really
taking us further back in time
because in the carboniferous period
when the coal that we use today was
being laid down, it was tree ferns,
club mosses that produced all that.
So ancient ancient?
Very ancient,
as ancient as you can get. Hmm.
'Corrieshalloch has given me
a glimpse of primordial Scotland.'
A real sense of how it would have
looked in the distant past.
But I'm leaving its wonders behind
as I travel even deeper
into this great wilderness.
To the east
lie the rich waters of the North Sea.
The ports here were once the biggest
providers of herring in the world.
The so-called "silver darlings"
were landed in their millions.
Just South of Wick, at Ulbster,
a forgotten story of man's talent
for improvisation is carved
into the structure of the rocks.
The only inlet for fishing boats
sat at the bottom
of a 250-foot sheer cliff.
Not the easiest place
to land a catch.
So the resourceful 18th century
fishermen built a staircase
known as the Whaligoe Steps.
The last fishing boats left here
more than 60 years ago,
and Iain Sutherland,
now in his 70s, is one of the
last people to remember it in use.
He's dedicated 40 years
to a personal labour of love -
preserving and renovating
the 350 steps.
'I had to go up and down here
seven times in one day.
'I was in my bed
for the next two days recovering.'
It's easy enough to come down,
going up's a different
problem altogether.
The first time I came down the steps
was about 1948 or '49
and my granduncle John Miller
and his brother
were still fishing from here.
And it wasn't till later
that I just realised what it
really was to earn a living here.
It was a very hard life.
This is where
they landed the herring here
from the boats down there.
Each would land about a basket
or so of herring.
The old winch is still there,
that winch was installed about
1890 and that was a great boon
for hauling up the boats.
Well, I've had a love affair
with this place
since I was literally born.
And it's undiminished,
still the same yet, I still feel
the same way about it,
and I will do anything
I can to keep it that way
and help it being that way.
20 miles north of Whaligoe
the land runs out at John O'Groats,
the most obvious place
to end a journey across Britain.
But that's not where we're heading.
Our alternative journey south
to north finishes at Cape Wrath,
the most northwesterly point
on the British mainland.
It's the most sparsely inhabited
part of the UK.
25,000 acres
of wind-lashed rock and sea,
a wet desert,
without trees or shelter.
A true wilderness with some
final secrets for us to discover.
We're heading for Kervaig,
a tiny bay on the north coast.
I'm walking in from
Kinlochbervie in the south.
While I'm starting at Faraid Head
and travelling in from the east.
But first we have to get there.
Cape Wrath is 100 miles from
the nearest city, and closer to the
Arctic Circle than it is to London.
You don't end up here by accident.
'It's also the wettest and windiest
place in the UK and today it's
throwing everything it's got at me.'
Cape Wrath is certainly
living up to its fearsome name.
Some people are always
searching for solitude,
that chance to get lost
in the landscape,
but there are very few places you
can actually do it in this country.
This is one of those places though,
no noise, no hustle and bustle,
just this.
'Finally I've reached a landscape
that is untouched and truly wild.
'And it's a privilege to be here.'
Virgin sand, can't resist it.
But this very lack of human influence
has a special appeal
for the cape's modern landlord.
And twice a year
the wilderness is invaded.
Today this land is owned and
managed by the Ministry of Defence.
And David Halpin
is the Officer Commanding.
Hi David.
Hello, Julia. Welcome to Cape Wrath.
You've brought the weather with you,
I see.
I don't think it's me,
I have this feeling it's
like this most of the time.
I think you're probably right.
'The MoD have been here since 1933,
using the Cape as an enormous
live bombing range.'
I can guess why it's such
a good place for you guys
to practise,
I mean, the conditions must certainly
test your soldiers.
Yes, indeed, I mean, one of ideal
places about Cape Wrath
or the Parph as it's known locally
is its extreme terrain
it's arduous, it's isolated
and it gives us
the ability to train our service
men and women in difficult climates.
Does the topography
and the geography of the place help?
It's very important.
It is the only range in the UK
where we can use land, sea
and air assets all at the same time.
Access to the cape is restricted
during live firing
for understandable reasons.
But the rest of the time,
if you can get here,
you're free to explore
this extraordinary empty space.
So what do newcomers think
when they first land here?
The servicemen? Yeah. Well,
obviously they think it's awful
because they don't want to be here.
There's no wi-fi, there's no
mobile telephone connectivity,
or very limited, and it's arduous
terrain. So it is very,
very uncomfortable.
You're getting absolutely soaked,
can I ask you, does one ever
get used to this?
I would personally say
that it's a good drying day.
There's an old saying here
that if you can see the Orkneys
it's going to rain, and if you
can't see them, it's raining.
Right, OK. I shall bear that in mind.
Well, there's certainly no sign
of the Orkneys today,
and on the east side of the Cape
I've run out of road,
so I'm getting a lift.
Roberta, morning! How you doing,
all right? Well, she's blustery
It is a bit windy, yup.
'Roberta Mackay's been working here
as an MoD warden for almost 5 years.
'Unlike the troops, she
chooses to live here year round.'
Is it really tough weather-wise,
living here?
It can be very tough at times, yeah.
You're seeing our summer
at the moment
so you can imagine what
it's like in the winter time.
It was very bad this winter,
we couldn't get over onto the range
for about four weeks,
there was a lot of snow.
Cos to get here it's about 55 miles
of single track road. Yeah, yeah.
Do you think of going further south?
Or do you like it here,
the most northwesterly point
in Britain? I enjoy it.
You've maybe got to be
a certain kind of person
to live in areas like this,
you know, you don't have all your
home comforts close at hand as it
were, but it's good, it's good.
The weather's beaten me at last.
Well, thank you for saving me.
You're welcome, Julia.
I hope you eventually dry out.
I doubt it.
'So I'm catching a lift with David
to our final destination.'
'But I'm determined to get there
under my own steam.'
I've got the offer of one of these
and to be honest,
it would be rude not to use it.
This rough track across the Cape
is the only way to reach the beach.
And it's a cracking ride.
Well, this has to be
the definition of feeling
isolated in Britain.
You're certainly at the mercy
of the elements here,
being battered by the wind.
'Back on foot, I'm almost there.'
I can feel the end point in my toes.
Kervaig beach is just that way.
And it's a real treat.
Wow!
That is a gem.
The dramatic sands of Kervaig
are my reward for struggling
through the weather.
Arguably
the most secret beach in Britain.
'But I don't have it
to myself for too long.'
Noisy wheels!
How're you doing?
Good. Look at that.
It doesn't get much
tastier than that.
Goodness me. That was some ride,
I tell you.
'It's overlooked only
by a stone bothy for the intrepid
explorers who make it this far.
'Kervaig beach is the perfect place
to end our epic adventure.
'Our travels have brought us to
the very edge of Secret Britain.'
'Now, ahead of us lies nothing,
'but the cold waters of the
North Atlantic and the Arctic beyond.
'Behind us the UK stretches out,
'a heart-warming reminder
of all the places we've been.'
'It's a journey that's shown us just
how different Secret Britain can be.
'An adventure through
a country we thought we knew.
'A country where every road
can lead to the hidden
or the forgotten.'
There you go. That's where
it is if you want to know.
X marks the spot.
'We've found secrets to discover,
to reclaim, and to respect.'
Places to inspire.
Who could fail to get lost
in a place like this?
Places to remember forever.
From the most southerly point
in England to the very north
of Scotland, we've seen some
of Britain's best countryside
in an astonishing new light.
And we've only just
scratched the surface.
Our Secret Britain
is all around us, you've just got
to get out there and find it.